August 1st, 2004
by The Honor Lord
Summary: "Someone turns on the TV and there are several conversations going on at once. You participate in none of them, for once. Instead, you sit back and watch everyone talk, as if nothing has changed since that day, exactly 5 years ago. Except everything's changed." Happy 8/1 everyone!


AN: Happy 14th Odaiba Anniversary! I think I finished on time (it really depends on where you are). I was planning to draw something but none of my sketches turned out well so I decided to stretch my writing muscles a bit. It's not the best I've ever done, but I'm fairly happy with it?

* * *

You hear the buzzing of the doorbell and look at the bowl of chips you're pouring. You hesitate, wondering whether to get the door or let Hikari do it. The buzzing intensifies and you sigh, putting down the bag of chips and slide into the hallway. "Calm down, I'm coming!" you yell, as you fumble with opening the door in your haste. The door swings open to reveal Yamato and Sora, the former loaded down with several plastic bags. You crane your neck to see what's inside them and Sora swats your forehead.

"At least let us in first," she says. You step aside and they take off their shoes, Yamato dumping the bags on the kitchen countertop, next to the half-filled chip bowl. He takes one and pops it in his mouth. You hear Sora say something about waiting until everyone arrives but Hikari just walked in from her room with a stack of newspaper clippings and you don't pay much attention to her.

"What is this?" you ask, taking the first article as she places it on the living room table. Your eyes skim the title. You pick up the next ones and chuckle.

Hikari places a hand on her hip. "What's so funny?" she asks, an eyebrow raised. "It's my collection of every single Digimon-related newspaper." She takes the ones in your hands and gently places them back in the pile. "At first I did it because I wanted to know how everyone saw what happened, but it's more like a habit now. Besides, Takeru needs it for his novel."

You roll your eyes. She's been talking about his novel for a while, but you've never heard him mention it. Admittedly, you haven't seen him that much anymore. This party will be the first time you've seen him in months. In fact, you haven't seen many of the other Chosen Children in a while. Mimi, you haven't seen in over a year, considering she lives in America and plane tickets are expensive, even for her family. Jyou is in high school and is constantly studying and Koushiro may go to the same school as you, but you're in different grades. You see him in the halls sometimes, but you have different social circles and sometimes it's easier for both of you not to do anything but exchange a look and a nod.

The doorbell buzzes again and Yamato, who has had more than a handful of chips, gets the door. Jyou and Koushiro walk in, greeting you and everyone else. You figure they probably walked over to your place together, seeing as they live in the same building. Koushiro carries two bags filled with bentos and you don't doubt that his mother made them for you guys. You can imagine her insisting that he bring them and you chuckle inwardly. You glance at what Jyou brought and aren't surprised to see several bottles of pop. Trust him to bring the essentials.

Yamato asks you where your apron is from the kitchen and you throw a weird look over your shoulder at him. He glares at you. "I'm making a cake and if you say anything about it, you're not getting any." You point to a niche near the kitchen where your mother's flowery apron is hanging. He takes it, gives it a skeptical look and promptly puts it on.

You flop onto one of chairs in the dining room, your chin resting on the back of the chair. "Why didn't you make it at your place? Or at Sora's?" You feel Sora rap your head, cushioned by your extraordinary large hair.

"Fresh cake always tastes better," she says. "Also, Mimi wants to help make the cake."

"Well she isn't here yet, is she?" you mutter and she raps your head again. The door buzzes again you groan. "Somebody get that?" Sora sighs and obliges. Half a minute later, Mimi has greeted everyone in her usual cheery fashion, given everyone a huge hug and is in the kitchen, with her own apron and fussing over the ingredient quality.

Someone turns on the TV and there are several conversations going on at once. You participate in none of them, for once. Instead, you sit back and watch everyone talk, as if nothing has changed since that day, exactly 5 years ago. Except everything's changed.

The phone rings and Hikari picks up. She listens for a bit, says a couple of words, before heading out with a wave. You figure it was Takeru, and don't give it much thought.

You look around at your friends and wonder why the eight of you haven't done this before. You've never met up together like this on August 1st. It's been five years since you were all whisked into the Digital World, with the exception of Hikari. It should feel like a momentous occasion, but instead, it just feels like a gathering of friends. You bite your lip a bit. You're feeling a bit disappointed, because you thought this would be a lot more… you don't quite know, but certainly not this casual.

Sora drops into the seat next to you, bringing the bowl of chips with her. She extends it to you and you grab a handful. "Are you okay? You're unusually quiet."

You shrug, stuffing your face with chips. "Taking in how much we've grown," you say, crumbs flying out of your mouth.

She looks at you with mock disgust and then a mock sneer. "I didn't know you were so nostalgic," she says. Her eyes soften. "But you did arrange this party." She looks around the room like you did, but this time, you look at her. Sometimes you forget that she's not the girl who you played soccer with when you were kids. Sometimes you forget that she's a grown woman. But every time you remember, you remember how you thought you loved her and you laugh at yourself. You never plucked up the courage to ask her how she felt, and you always laughed at the irony of the fact. Crest of Courage your ass.

You remember how you agonized about it for a month and then all of a sudden Yamato and Sora were together. You talked a bit to Koushiro about it later, about how if you only plucked up your courage that you were supposed to have, things might have been different. Koushiro gave you a long look and said something that was beyond his age:

"It takes courage to let someone you love be with the person they love."

You stared at him in astonishment for a while. Then you leaned back and chuckled. "Maybe."

"Besides, if you want my opinion, you and Sora would have a really rocky relationship, given how much you two fight."

"You can shut up now."

You look over at Koushiro now, gesturing at the TV and protesting about how misinformed the news piece was. He definitely fit the Crest of Knowledge, probably more than you fit the Crest of Courage. It doesn't take much to march into battle, when everyone expects you to, but it takes a hell lot more courage to speak up when no one knows what's going on. Sora has gotten up and moved to the kitchen, pointing at a bowl of mixture. Yamato says something, before giving her a swift kiss on the forehead and returning back to mixing his bowl.

You don't resent them. Sora and Yamato are your best friends, the best you've ever had. Sora loves you, just as she loves all her friends and family and you've come to love her in the same way. She might not know it, but she taught you how to love, in more ways than you thought was possible. Crest of Love. How she thought it wasn't fitting, you don't know.

Yamato catches your eye and tilts his head questioningly. Yamato knows how you felt, although he figured it out a bit too late. He apologized and you waved it off. You know it bothered him, still bothers him and you regret it. You regret that despite having the Crest of Friendship, Yamato wouldn't talk to him about it. You suppose it was the Crest of Friendship that even made it an issue in the first place. You make a mental note to talk to him some other time, preferably when there was less company around.

"Tai. Chi."

You freeze for a second then slowly tilt your head back to see Mimi towering over you. You gulp.

"Are you going to sit around all day, or are you going to help?"

You attempt a smile, but it turns out more sheepish than you planned. "I gave up my house for an evening?"

Without another word, she yanks you from her seat and drags you into the kitchen despite your protests about ruining the cake. She rummages in her large bag and shoves an apron into your hands. You reluctantly put it on and follow her instructions. As you mix together something, you laugh. You are tempted to think that Mimi hasn't changed all these years, but that's not true. The set of her chin is higher, the fire in her eyes is stronger and her voice is surer than before. The only thing that hasn't changed, you think, is that she is still as sincere as the day you met her and it is the one thing everyone notices about her. No one deserves the Crest of Sincerity as much as she does, except perhaps Miyako, who you don't know well enough to say.

You feel a bit guilty for Miyako, Daisuke, Iori and Ken, because they aren't coming. Admittedly, they were invited, but Miyako had enough tact to refuse on behalf of the other four, despite Daisuke's not-so-silent protests. Still, perhaps you should have insisted more.

You don't notice at first and neither do the other three in the kitchen with you. It takes Jyou rushing into the kitchen and opening the oven for the burning smell to really hit your noses. All of a sudden everyone springs into action. You and Jyou attempt to fan away the smoke while Yamato and Sora scramble to silence the smoke detector that had started informing them belatedly that something was burning. Koushiro attempts to console Mimi over the ruined cake while trying not to seem amused.

"How did you know?" you ask Jyou as the apartment begins to clear.

He taps his nose. "My smelling is the best apparently."

You laugh. Leave it to Jyou to be the one to detect it first and probably in the nick of time. Crest of Reliability. You watched him grow into the role that he strived so hard to be and he may be your elder but you're proud of him. The front door opened and Hikari walked in with a large amount of coughing.

"What did you guys _do_?"

The six of you exchanged brief, sheepish glances. "Nothing," you say quickly. "Where have _you_ been?"

Her face split into a huge grin. "Takeru? Everyone? You can come in now!"

Takeru entered first and for a moment, the six of you were confused. Then you heard an explosion of very familiar voices and you all rushed forward immediately with shouts of surprise and happiness.

"Agumon!"

"Taichi, why does it smell like smoke in here?"

You laugh and hug your best friend. You look around the room and see everyone doing the same with their respective Digimon. You catch Hikari's eye and she smiles at you, Gatomon in her hands. Every day you wonder at your sister, how she can be so full of life and so pure. Then you look over at Takeru, talking to Patamon on his head.

Crest of Light and Crest of Hope.

Of course they would.

You shake your head and look around the room, taking in the excitement in the room and as much as you hate clichés, the only way to describe the feeling was that your heart swelled.

The rest of the evening is spent in reminiscing events, from the big ones like the battles to the little ones like singing in the tunnel. You light candles, each one for everyone who died during your adventures. There is a silence that follows and all of you are either crying or trying to hold back your tears.

When everyone leaves and the Digimon return back to the Digital World to, once again, maintain order, you and Hikari clean up what's left over from the others' quick cleaning sweep. She sighs and you look over at her questioningly.

"I missed this," she says.

You sigh as well. "So did I."

And in that moment the two of you silently agreed that this was a tradition you would all keep. The bond that connected all of you, that tied all of you together, you weren't allowed to forsake it ever. No matter what, no matter where in the world any of you are, you would continue this meeting, because what happened in Odaiba, was too important to simply put aside as childhood memories.

You were the Chosen Children and you could never forget that


End file.
